The northern half of Johnson County (SMSD) is on the verge of making the same disastrous community-destroying mistake KCMO did 50 years ago--sacrificing the middle class to rescue and prop up latchkey apartment kids.

Heather Ousley is willing to bus this boy to force him to teach English to apartment kids whose parents won't speak it.

If liberal labor activist Dems Heather Ousley and Laura Guy are elected to SM school board, will our district become like KCMO's? Including bussing, namecalling and finger-pointing union fights on nightly newscasts?

"Johnson County niceness" is preventing the Nov. 7 school board candidates from telling voters the truth: Blue Valley is kicking our ass on test scores.

When you go to sell your home, the price of your home in Shawnee Mission District could easily drop $30,000! You will have FEWER BUYERS. You will lose out to Blue Valley.

Ultra-liberal union organizers, including Dems Heather Ousley and Laura Guy are using their "aw shucks" Cheshire cat smiles and Peter Pan collars to infiltrate the SM School Board. But make no mistake--their political leanings show they would be much happier living in Westport or KC's Hispanic West Side.

From Heather Ousley's Facebook. She is not in tune with the average Johnson County homeowner and voter.She's a lovely woman--but wants to play Bernie Sanders' social engineering games with your biggest investment, your home. She'd bus your kid to rescue illegal immigrants.

Nobody wants to mention these facts. Intellectually we are ALL committed to "diversity" and "quality education for all". To a point. But if an unwieldy number of kids don't speak English (like 28% in Shawanoe Elementary--whose immigrant parents oppose "assimilation"), then middle class families in MY neighborhood have to fork over thousands for private school tuition, over and above the $14,000 per pupil we spend on every child in Kansas. Or they vote with their wallet, and move out south.

I know of 17 kids in my HOA--who either are home-schooled or attend Good Shepherd across the street, or Maranatha Academy, or Adventist, or Padre Pio. Why? They're tired of their kids being ignored in crowded public school classrooms --and used as free teachers' assistants. Middle class kids of average intelligence, used as pawns. And the bright ones? Completely ignored.

(Whereas Padre Pio, whose tuition is $3595 per year, runs away with ALL the STEM awards!)
So clearly, money is not the only solution. It's less overpaid administrator bullies. More teachers in the classroom. But also teaching values, not just teaching to the test.

NOBODY RUNNING FOR SCHOOL BOARD WANTS TO DISCUSS IT.
NOT EVEN HEATHER OUSLEY, THE VERY LIBERAL DEMOCRAT BACKED BY TRI-COUNTY LABOR COUNCIL and the NEA.

1. If union organizer/ultra-liberal Dem Heather Ousley is elected, take her at her word. The eventual result will be bussing of middle class kids to prop up the test scores of disadvantaged kids.

She's already said as much in the debate two weeks ago: "I refuse to allow any disadvantaged school to have any more disadvantaged kids assigned to it." So even if the Title 1 (free school lunch) school is surrounded by a growing number of subsidized apartments--what's the outcome? She's committed to bussing in higher achievers. Gerrymandered districts. Using our kids to artificially serve as teachers' assistants in crowded classrooms. And prop up test scores.

Did homeowners learn NOTHING from Judge Clark and KCMO's disaster than led to massive flight to Johnson County?

2. Meanwhile, 82% of all VOTERS, who are older, do not have kids in K-12. They moved to Joco for the good schools and--LONG TERM-- to build and preserve the value of their biggest asset: their home.

FACT: We are losing out to Blue Valley district. Huge migration of families. It's undisputed.

Up first: Replacing the disgraced bully, Jim Hinson, the former SMSD superintendent who had the affair (and DUI?) with the married school board President who hired him. He gave a giant contract to her daughter's boss to manage the district's benefits. He was a despot who skirted Open Meetings. He did not allow any "negativity" to be discussed at board meetings.

The current board rubberstamped everything he demanded. Meeting in diads in secret, in violation of KORA, to achieve a "wink and nod" consent agenda. Puppets. Who propped up outrageous admin salaries. Shame on them.

What we need: People commited to change rather than headline grabbing. With the quiet resolve to:
1. Slash administrative costs.
2. Put more teachers in the classroom.
3. Without bussing or turning the district into another battleground like KCMO's school board is.

I am voting for Mandi Serrone Hunter, at large, and against "Hanoi Heather" Ousley.

Hunter is a moderate Republican. A real estate attorney with high scores in her career--so she "gets" that in Johnson County, we have mastered the teeter totter--an artful balance between social values and property values. Mandi Hunter, daughter of beloved Lenexa Councilman Lou Serrone, uses discretion when she speaks in public-- but beneath her smile is a velvet hammer.

Hunter is resolved to restoring Shawnee Mission to competitive greatness. An excellent education for all. Without bussing or discord. Not whining and lobbying before the cameras about a magic bullet of millions more in taxes--but a much smarter allocation of the money we already give our school board.

Whereas Heather Ousley is a publicity seeker. She "walked 60 miles to Topeka". That's clearly a stunt. Half crazy. Fell into the arms of her hubbie, a state rep, Jarrod Ousley. In the primary, didn't we just get RID of Cindy Neighbor, another know-it-all convinced we needed her as both a state rep and on the school board??

Mandi Hunter is smart. Her style is to work behind the scenes for concensus and improvement. But she does not buy into that liberal babble-speak that simply handing millions more over to the contentious NEA will make OUR district work any better than KCMO, which is the world's longest Model Cities rumpus room in America.

The SMSD is rotten at the TOP, not the middle. We can't afford to let the NEA union organizers (Ousley and Laura Guy) turn the northern half of Johnson County into a real estate war zone.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Homeowners beware--a civil rights Snowflake Attorney, "Hanoi Heather" Ousley is running at large for SM School District Nov. 7. She promised at last weekend's ShawneeMissionPost debate NEVER to allow disadvantaged school's boundaries to permit higher income/achieving kids to leave that school. (debate is linked at bottom.)

"Hanoi Heather" Ousley is as tone deaf as Jane Fonda was, when she was a traitor to the US in VietNam.

"Hanoi Heather" Ousley wants to play politics with Joco's biggest investments--our homes--through gerrymandering school boundaries. She promised Sat. at the debate-- to handcuff smart affluent kids into artificially inflating school test scores. That includes MY neighborhood school, Shawanoe at 75th & Nieman in Shawnee. It's smack dab in the growing heart of subsidized apartments, (formerly called Section 8) for citizens and illegal immigrants alike. At Shawanoe, 28% of the kids speak 17 OTHER LANGUAGES THAN ENGLISH! And school board candidate Heather Ousley is willing to handcuff and dragoon our little kids into being teacher's assistant--to teach English to kids at Shawanoe. Meanwhile, many other children are not getting much attention, because we all know, class sizes in Shawnee Mission schools are too large.

This social engineering experiment failed miserably in KCMO. Did we learn nothing??
Despite statements and inferences from Hanoi Heather and another socialist/union candidate, Laura Guy, students do not "learn better" in a school that is excessively diverse. They made that up.

Using kids as unwilling pawns for social engineering is WRONG.Using GERRYMANDERING of district boundaries for cavalier social experiments and manipulation of test scores is UNETHICAL AND HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE TO MAINTAINING PROPERTY VALUES!
None of this would be an issue in the more prosperous Blue Valley School District in southern Johnson County--because they don't have Title 1 low income schools. All those kids walk to their neighborhood school. That's why parents bought where they did!

In Johnson County, we all believe in diversity to a point. In my own HOA, my immediate neighbors are a great mix of folks who maintain their property and support kids through higher learning to good careers. They include Hindu, Muslim immigrants who escaped the Shah of Iran and speak Farsi, gays, Catholics, African Americans, Armenians, Mexican American citizens, atheists, mixed families with foster kids, rednecks, retirees...and me.

To the Bernie Sanders liberals in Northeast Johnson County, I'd say this: Of course you support diversity. But it is mostly INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY, because Fairway, PV and Mission do not have low income subsidized housing totally surrounding YOUR neighborhood grade schools! (Like we have at Shawanoe.) You do not have any ESL schools at 28%.

"Hanoi Heather" is a Merriam Democrat whose misguided extreme Liberal policies are not in line with homeowners' goals. She will ruin Johnson County property values for the 82% of residents who do NOT have kids in SMSD. While quite pleasant one on one, if you hand her a microphone, Hanoi Heather turns into a belligerent harpie for the NEA Teachers Union (Never EnoughApples!): Listen to her badgering Hillary style speech in Topeka on her web site.

Full funding is really teacher union code for endlessly more money. But that's not the solution.

"Hanoi Heather" Ousley's day job is a civil rights attorney for HUD. So her paycheck comes from HUD; while her husband Jerrod's paycheck comes from being a Democrat state rep in Topeka. And now this family is so narcissistic they think they also need to boss around our School Board?

Union organizers from Mo marching for Jerrod Ousley. Wife "Hanoi Heather" Ousley is ALSO endorsed and funded by Tri-County Labor Council. This "Bill & Hillary" wannabe power couple is on a rant--willing to disrupt the rights of homeowners to preserve and protect their property values in Joco. They are on the record, willing to use gerrymandering of district boundaries, and using little children to be dragooned into serving as Junior Social Justice Warriors.

Ironically, Hanoi Heather doesn't walk her talk--she moved her three kids out of her husband's district's Nieman Elementary--a Title 1 low income school, to a non-titled school. Allegedly, one child had a hearing problem. But not all three! One must "state a reason" to move a child out of their assigned school boundary.

Thus, the Ousleys used their political influence to move all three of their kids out of the elementary district represented by their Dad. Ousley's opponent, Republican Mandi (Serrone) Hunter has a child with a hearing deficit--but KEPT her child in the assigned school. Hunter's father is famously likeable Lenexa Councilman Lou Serrone.

Finally, I had to laugh at this PTA nonsense. We don't play games with property values because a few PTA Moms lobbied to keep their "identities" and power and social cachet at the school where nobody else wanted to serve. Wahhhhhh! There's no crying in PTA!

---Editor's note: 10/27/17I just received a second comment after Ned Scott was allowed to leave his comment.It appears HERE, because like the second commenter, I can't get Blogger to post it. I happen to agree, that it was OUSLEY who acts like Hillary Clinton who used her privilege as the wife of a state rep to pry THREE of her kids out of a Title 1 underperforming school! In fact using the disabled child as her wedge to sneak the other two reassigned. That's disgusting. For her own "convenience". Ousley's actions demonstrate clearly she thinks the rules don't apply to her.

COMMENT #2 FROM OUSLEY PULLS STRINGS. ALL TALK

"Tiger Mom"?? Mr. Ned Scott, it seems Ousley meets your notion of "Tiger Mom," not Mandi Hunter. OUSLEY is the one sending all of her kids to a school outside their attendance zone. The facts are: Hunter's kids attend their assigned school, like most people do within the district. Mandi Hunter is committed to the serious change our district desperately needs. Hunter is already posing questions and proposing policies to enhance accountability, digging deeply into district policies and methods to make decisions in the best interests of the students and everyone else who supports this school district, from teachers to taxpayers. We all want a great education for ALL our kids. And Hunter has the courage to check the administration's supersized salaries--so we can lower class sizes. We need to stop the steady exodus of middle class families to Blue Valley. The actions of our privileged scheming school board are costing ALL SMSD homeowners tens of thousands of dollars in lost resale value. Ousley is all about herself in her galloping ambitions and publicity stunts."

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The most important film of the decade was Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise--explaining pre-crime...and Big Brother getting all up into our business.

Even tho Tom Cruise is personally a creep, his movie Minority Report warned us of how Big Brother has its eyeballs on our every move, everything we shop for, every message we send, every call we make...even every thought we entertain about what we'd LIKE to buy in the future. And now Facebook Messenger's permissions app does all that. And I bet you never read it, just clicked YES.

The man on the attached video, EXOabigdeal, who explains the dangers, uses more than the normal number of curse words, but look way beyond his outrage: he is absolutely right!
How dangerous FB Messenger is.
Their applications are preposterous.
Secret use of your camera, access to all your contacts, ability to make phone calls without your permission, permission to downlaod files and share them with others, without notifying me!

It's all in the Permission Page for FB Messenger.

I took Messenger off my phone, completely. People can text me. That's enuf.

But if you listen to the end, EXOabigdeal on YouTube explains three apps you can use on your phone so you can still receive Messenger messages, but keep it from launching, and keep it from sharing.
Those are Greenify, Smart BoosterPro and Boot Manager.
I have better things to do at my age. But if you are hip and your kids are messenging you, try those.